By the later Middle Ages the community was also purchasing
cloths and garments. The mid-fifteenth century ' Bursar's Account
Book' includes payments for linen, silk, fur and other cloths
The Cistercians' desire for self-sufficiency
meant that each community sought to make its own clothing, blankets
and other such necessities. Wool from the abbey's flocks was prepared
in the wool-house, an aisled storeroom which, at Fountains, lay
beside the malt-house and the brew-house. This vast warehouse was
at one time the largest building in the outer court, a visible testimony
to the importance of wool production and the wool industry.(36)
Excavation of the woolhouse from 1977 until 1980 showed that although
this dates from the mid-twelfth century, it was altered and reconstructed
about six times in accordance with the community's changing needs
and developments in technology. A fulling mill seems to have been
added in the west aisle in the late thirteenth century, and dye-vats
and a hot water supply added in the fourteenth century.(37)
This would have meant that the manufacture of cloth could have been
completed here. The woolhouse was not simply used for storage, and
the obedientiary in charge of its management had an office here,
in the north-east corner of the building.(38)
In the late fifteenth century the decline of the wool trade and
the need for workshops to serve the restoration of the abbey church,
meant that the woolhouse was converted into a smithy, glaziers and
other workshops. Once the alterations in the church had been completed,
the building was demolished.(35)
